Recent statistics show that the number of cellular telephone users in the United States alone is about 203 million. The emergence of the cellular telephone and portable digital assistants (“PDA”s) as widely embraced technologies has led to the emergence of ancillary markets, such as the market for cellular telephone accessories. As more and varied cellular accessories reach the market, the need for smaller, more streamlined, and more flexible accessories has developed.
Cellular telephones are currently quite compact, having a length, width and depth of only a few inches. Some persons, particularly males, prefer to carry their cellular telephone or cell phone on a belt about their waist. Various belt clips for cellular telephones have been devised. One form of belt clip requires that the cell phone itself carry a certain attachment that interlocks with a complementary attachment on the belt clip. These types of cellular telephone belt clips include a first clip member, which captures the person's belt and a complementary clip member which interacts with the first clip member permanently or semi-permanently attached to the rear side of the cell phone or cell phone case. This form of belt clip, however, can be complicated to use since it consist of multiple separate pieces and the user is required to place a first member on his belt before the cell phone is attached to the belt.
Another form of belt clip is a simple clip that attaches permanently or semi-permanently to the back of the cell phone or cell phone case. The clip is subsequently attached to a belt or a pant edge. These clips, however, can be bulky and unwieldy to use. Further, the cumbersome nature and size of these clips makes it more difficult to carry the cell phone in a pant pocket or a small purse.
Further, belt clips and cases are typically provided with a fixed clip or a clip designed to be used with a single case. This arrangement is inefficient and necessitates the use of multiple mobile device cases for a single device in different carrying scenarios. For example, a user might have a case with belt clip to affix the device to a belt, and another case with a hook to affix the device to a strap and yet another case with no clip or hook when the device is going to be carried in a purse or pocket.
Thus, there is a need to overcome the problems with the prior art, and more particularly for a more efficient and compact way to provide an interchangeable clip or other fastener arrangement to affix a mobile device to different objects.